re: Official U.S. Open Tennis Thread.

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Yeah, it's not exactly a fair comparison due to their respective ages. Let's see if Nadal is still grinding out hardcourt matches when he's not playing well in 5 years.

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The point he's making -- and this has been written by many others, not just him -- is that Federer has always won on pure talent alone. Nadal is a great in-match problem solver. He figures out ways to win. Federer never had to do that. He just played and the results were usually good, and so he had no need ever learn to how become an in-match problem solver. And now that he isn't good enough to just play, when things start turning against him, he doesn't know how to find solutions.

This was from Brian Phillips -- a huge Fed fan -- during the 2012 Aussie Open:

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And this is basically the story of this rivalry, right? That is, one of the fundamental things that everyone seems to sense about these players is that Nadal has limitless tenacity, never gives up, gets stronger as the match progresses, and loves the fight for its own sake, while Federer, for all his sublime talent, can turn confoundingly soft on the rare occasions when the momentum turns against him. Just every now and again, there's a Strange Federer Softness. Sometimes you get the sense that he feels he's proved his point in the early games and expects the rest of the match to fall into line out of courtesy. And if it doesn't, if things don't work out as a logical extension of those first few games, he's taken aback. It's not that he lacks the mental strength to compete, more that he loses his decision-making ability because he's genuinely perplexed. He's like a ship in becalmed waters. Anyway, this third set will be vital for him.

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Did I see this right? Hewitt had 5 in a row taken from him at 2-5 in 5th?

Did I see this right? Hewitt had 5 in a row taken from him at 2-5 in 5th?
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and the 4th if i'm not mistaken. a big league choke to say the least. and he's been in this position before, although way back. he handled it terribly.

I wasn't on board with bobby's GOAT talk a year or so ago, but I am now. Just put her with Martina and Steffi, in whatever order you want.

Istomin wtf are you doing?

Lots of empty seats there.

Stan and Berdych are playing a terrible match right now

Istomin with the typical underdog collapse after winning the first set

Murray just had the most embarrassing miss I've ever seen.

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bobby, I feel like we could be e-bffs if we weren't on opposite sides of the Federer/Nadal thing

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Go ahead and jump on the Rafa bandwagon. There's plenty of room.